Girls Gets Good Again

Every single minute that inspired a palm to the face and a loss of faith in Lena Dunham and the Girls universe at large this season was redeemed in one single episode, and it was glorious. We saw the return of a fantastic character we've thoroughly missed. We witnessed a handful of fights that make the conflicts on The Real World look tame. There was a choreographed dance routine in earnest. Hannah, Jessa (Jemima Kirke), and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) hopped a bus and met Marnie (Allison Williams) in the Hamptons. (Or not the Hamptons but North Fork, according to Marnie, which is totally less tacky or something.)

Right out the gate, Marnie says exactly what we've all been thinking when she greets her friends at the bus stop: something is off, it needs to get fixed, and a girls' weekend by the beach is just the ticket. Squabbles erupt immediately when Jessa and Shosh start squealing about who's staying in which perfectly put-together room at the house, and Marnie, ever the control freak, announces that they're on a strict schedule: she's assigned rooms, they're going to spend some time swimming in the "most perfect swimming conditions ever," they're going to have heart-to-hearts at dinner and get to the root of why the four friends have grown so distant, they're going to write wishes down and throw them into a goddamn bonfire after watching Queens of Comedy, and they're going grocery shopping, damn it. They bike into town, and while waiting outside the grocery store, the best thing happens: Elijah (Andrew Rannells) returns, and he's got a handful of friends in tow. The last time we saw Hannah's ex from college (who turned out to be into men), he'd slept with Marnie in a brief moment of confusion and forged a rift between the best friends that they're still in the process of mending. After Hannah initially brushes him off, Elijah sincerely apologizes, they hug it out, and Hannah invites them back to Marnie's, a move that entertains all while pissing off the high-maintenance hostess in the process.

The thing is, Marnie really, really wanted to make a gorgeous, healing dinner with her best friends, and Elijah showing up with his new boyfriend and their theater friends makes for a massive distraction. Instead of crying over seared duck breast and julienned vegetables, they're learning a dance routine with Elijah's failed Broadway friend. The grievances don't get aired, the quirks that irk continue to burrow under everyone's skin, and finally, in a beautiful explosion of uncharacteristic profanity and name-calling, Marnie, Hannah, Jessa, and louder-than-ever Shosh start to unravel. "I'm talking about the fact that you're a fucking narcissist!" Shosh spits at Hannah after Marnie tells them they should all be "honest." "I've never met anyone else who thinks their own life is so fucking fascinating. I wanted to fall asleep in my own vomit all day from listening to you talk about how you bruise more easily than other people." It's on. Shoshanna, who's been sadly absent for much of Girls' third season, cuts the cutesy bullshit and gets right to the point, articulating exactly what we've all been feeling since they drove upstate to fetch Jessa from rehab. "Sometimes, I wonder if my social anxiety is holding me back from meeting the people who would be actually right from me instead of a bunch of fucking whiny nothings as friends."

They punch each other in the emotional gut before they skulk off to their Pottery Barn catalog guest rooms to think about the devastating blows they dealt each other. When they wake up in the morning, they silently go about cleaning up the debauchery from the night before, washing up the wine glasses and chucking the remnants of their julienned vegetables. The silence continues at the bus stop, where they don't say a word to each other before they all start miming the dance moves from the routine they'd learned the night before.

What would we change? Not a thing. That episode was perfect. Our faith in Girls in all its dysfunctional, refreshing, eccentric glory is back in full effect.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Esquire participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.